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New Mexico locust has regional FireWise support, but it does not yet have a clear primary verdict on fire resistance.
The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension lists the tree as FIREWISE plant material for Arizona above 3,000 feet. New Mexico’s Forestry Division also recommends it, marking every printed elevation from 4,000 feet through 9,000-plus feet as suitable. The New Mexico source describes a mature height of 10 to 20 feet, low-to-moderate water needs, sun or partial shade, and an approximate April-to-June bloom period.
Both sources are compiled planting lists. Arizona uses a binary scale in which listing means recommendation, while New Mexico combines its recommendation with separate elevation and growing-information fields. Those scales support using New Mexico locust in fire-conscious landscaping within the stated regions and elevations, but they do not provide a primary finding about how readily the tree ignites or burns. That distinction is why the overall conclusion remains mixed rather than a simple yes.
New Mexico locust is a tree in the Fabaceae family, native in the Southwestern, Northwestern, and South-Central United States. A homeowner can reasonably treat the two regional listings as practical support, while recognizing that they settle plant selection more clearly than the underlying question of flammability.
Form
tree
Rated in
Arizona above 3,000 feet / interior Southwest; New Mexico
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
New Mexico Forestry Division publishes this as its FireWise Plant List for New Mexico. FireApproved accounts for all 140 printed rows and publishes 95 exact same-rank owners already represented in the directory; 29 exact taxa without an existing record, 14 unresolved spellings or higher-rank matches, one compound taxon cell, and one species row whose only apparent owner has an infraspecific printed identity remain held. Every published row retains the source's Y, N, ?, or blank elevation cells. Publication scope does not erase those elevation limits or establish suitability for every New Mexico site.
Arizona at or above 3,000 feet (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-12-01
AZ1289 is explicitly limited to Arizona elevations of 3,000 feet and higher. FireApproved publishes 69 exact owners as regional Arizona context, retaining every water and elevation condition. It is never promoted to statewide low-desert guidance or an independent Tier 1 vote.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, TX, UT, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, TX, UT, WY.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico: PDF page 3, Trees and Large Shrubs, p3-r29 [nm-emnrd-firewise-table-row] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed among fire-resistant plant materials for Arizona above 3,000 feet.
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico — New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division · 2003 Forestry Division PDF · original sourceCorroborationCompilationlineage: csu-nmsu-firewise
“FireWise Plant List for New Mexico”
Listed as Robinia neomexicana (New Mexico locust) in Trees and Large Shrubs. Printed elevation cells: 4,000 ft=Y, 5,000 ft=Y, 6,000 ft=Y, 7,000 ft=Y, 8,000 ft=Y, 9,000+ ft=Y. Water need: L-M; sun/shade: S/PS; mature height: 10-20’; approximate bloom: Apr- Jun.
